Kachin State Refugees Face Uncertain Future

There are15, 400 over Kachin Ethnic refugees are facing uncertain future in camps under KIO controlled areas along the China-kachin state border inside Burma. They left their home, livelihoods to escape the fighting, avoid forced labour and other human right abuse including used rape as weapon by the Burmese Army to kachin women after hearing the Burmese troop were offensive through the villages to Fight the Kachin Independent Army (freedom Fighters) which has been engaged in ongoing battle with the Burmese army since 17 years ceasefire collapsed in the midst of deadly clash one month ago.

“I fled because I previously heard stories about the torture and rape of women by the Burmese army,” said Lu Nam, 30, from the village of Madi Yan near the Chinese border. She fled with two of her children and is now living at a market being used as a temporary refugee camp in Laiza. Her husband is at a frontier post fighting for the KIA.

“Many of the refugees have nothing to live on and we don’t know how long they can sustain their lives,” said La Rip, who works for the Kachin Development Group, which is assisting the refugees. “I don’t know what will happen to them if the KIA reaches the point of being unable to provide further help.”

The Burmese army and KIA officials held ceasefire talks near Laiza on Thursday, but the discussion did not produce any concrete results and the threat of a major war breaking out has made the refugees afraid to go back home.

“I don’t know when we can go back to our village,” said a middle-aged man who was formerly a KIA soldier and is now a refugee. “I think it only depends on the Burmese government.”

The Burmese government has told domestic NGOs not to give aid to Kachin war refugees who fled to KIO areas along the Sino-Burma border after the outbreak of war, according to a Kachin refugee relief committee official.

“They gave a verbal order to NGOs in Myitkyina not to provide assistance to refugees. Not only NGOs, they also ordered the religious leaders not to help us. I believe blocking of assistance to the people is a violation of human rights,” he said.

Many NGOs including AZG, World Concern, WHO, Nyein Foundation, Shalom Foundation and Mitta Foundation operate in Myitkyina.

Mai Ja said, “We are not the armed group. We are the cannon fodder between these two armed groups, the KIO and government troops. The war refugees had to flee from the war zone when the war broke out. We are not opposing the government. Blocking relief supplies to the refugees means starving them to death. This government has no sympathy and no humanitarian consideration at all,” she told Mizzima